Irrigation Department Government of Sindh

2012 Documentary

Major task performed by the Irrigation Department are operation and maintenance of the irrigation and flood protection system, regulation of flows of River Indus and canal systems, covering Inter Provincial and Intra Provincial Systems. Execution of development schemes and mega projects is also one of the major responsibilities. Other duties handled by the department, which are also not lesser important are dealing with the administrative matters, financial matters, Public Accounts Committee’s issues irrigation cases, court cases and assembly business etc.

Barrages In Sindh

Guddu Barrage



         Location and Brief Story:

The Barrage is situated 10 miles north-west of Kashmore and about 100 miles upstream of Sukkur Barrage on River Indus, almost at the northern boundary of Sindh Province. The Barrage has been designed for providing assured water supply and improvement and extension of Irrigation facilities of Sindh and Baluchistan areas, which were being irrigated by inundation canals, the supplies of which were depending on uncertain fluctuating water levels of River Indus. The construction of head works was completed in the year 1962. The whole area commanded by the Guddu Barrage designed non-perennial.

Of the four feeders off-taking from this Barrages, two feeders on the right bank namely the discharge canal and Begari Sindh Feeder provide water for rice cultivation and the third feeder, namely Pat Canal on the right bank and Ghotki on the left bank are designed for dry crop cultivation. The pace of growth in agriculture on this Barrage has been satisfactory and in fact almost all the feeders in Sindh are working for beyond their designed capacity in order to satisfy the growing needs of the farmers. The project was planned to be completed in all respects earlier but due to financial constraints, some works costing Rs.238.8 million are still to be completed

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Sukkur Barrage



         Location and Brief Story.

It is situated across River Indus, about 300 miles North East of Karachi. The Barrage is built on River Indus about 3 miles below the Railway Bridge, or the Sukkur Gorge. The idea of Sukkur Barrage, Barrage was conceived by Mr. C.A .Fife, in the year 1868, however, the project was finally sanctioned in 1923. The Head Works and Canals were completed by 1932. The Sukkur Barrage, is the pride of Pakistan’s Irrigation system and his the largest single Irrigation work of its kind in the whole world.

This Barrage which is the backbone of the economy of the entire Country through its net-work of Canals providing Irrigation supplies or an area of 7.63 million acres which forms approximately 25% of total canal irrigated area of the country. The Nara canal which is one of the 7 Canals off taking from this Barrage is the longest canal of this country, carrying discharge almost equal to that of Thames River at London and its bed width which is 346 ft. is 1 ½ (one and half) times as big as of Suez Canal. In fact Nara Canal is not a man-made canal has it was the southern-most part of Hakro River which emanated from the foot hills of Sutlej which after traversing through the Punjab and Bhawalpur Plains joined Nara through Raini River, the remnants of which are still exiting in Ghotki Taluka. This Canal caters for an area of 2.3 million acres which is nearly equivalent to the entire Sindh area settled on Guddu Barrage alone.

The next largest canal is Rohri Canal which through slightly shorter in length than Nara Canal is yet taking discharge much more than the former. It has culture-able area of 2.6 million acres settled for Irrigation. Cotton crop, wheat crop and sugar-cane crop are the main crops grown on this canal system. All the four canals on the left and two canals on the right bank of River Indus are perennial canals, delivering Irrigation supplies all the year round. The seventh canal namely, Rice Canal on the right side is a seasonal canal which flows only in Kharif Season and is designed for rice cultivation. The N.W. Canal on the right bank provides perennial Irrigation for an area of 9.65 Lac acres out of which 1.84 Lac acres are situated in Baluchistan Province, receiving Irrigation supplies from the canals which originate from the Barrages in Sindh and feed the areas in both the provinces.

Kotri Barrage



Location and Brief History:

Kotri Barrage is situated 3 miles North of Hyderabad City. The project was sanctioned a few months before the dawn of independence in 1947. The Head works, were completed in 1955, and the left bank no perennial canals received weir controlled supplies the same year while Akram wah (Perennial) was made operational in 1958. On the Right Bank one single canal, Kalri Bagar Feeder off takes and it started functioning for first time in year 1958.

Four feeder canals, three on the left and one on the right bank of River Indus off-take from this Barrage and deliver assured Irrigation Water supplies for an area of 3.0 million acres. The feeder on the right, namely, Kalri Bagar Feeder has a unique designed where the Keenjhar Lake forms the integral Part of the canal system. The Kalri Bagar Feeder upper puts its water at the Northern end of Keenjhar Lake, whereas Kalri Bagar Feeder draws its supplies from Southern end of the Lake at Chillya. This Feeder fives Irrigation supplies to an area which is partly designed to receive perennial supplies and partly seasonal supplies. It is major sources of perennial water supplies for the Metropolis of Karachi.

Due to humid climate, Kotri Barrage command area is most suited for sugar-cane and Banana crops and both these crop area showing an ever increasing trend.